[meteorite-list] NEAR Shoemaker Image Of The Day - February 1, 2001

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:06 2004
Message-ID: <200102011704.JAA01754_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

                   NEAR image of the day for 2001 Feb 01

                   http://near.jhuapl.edu/iod/20010201/

                         The Subtle Colors of Eros

          NEAR Shoemaker took these images of Eros on October 16,
          2000, while orbiting 54 kilometers (34 miles) above the
          asteroid. They are shown in false color, constructed
          from images taken in green light and two different
          wavelengths of infrared light. Surface materials that
          have been darkened and reddened by the solar wind and
          micrometeorite impacts appear as pale brown, whereas
          fresher materials exposed from the subsurface on steep
          slopes appear in bright whites or blues. Compared with
          Gaspra and Ida, similar asteroids imaged in color from
          the Galileo spacecraft, Eros exhibits large brightness
          variations but only subtle color variations.

          The top panorama shows the rounded rim of the
          saddle-shaped feature Himeros. The fresh, bright
          materials appear in localized patches set on a
          background of older fragmental debris, or regolith. In
          most regions of Eros, such as in the panorama and the
          view at lower left, the bright patches are strongly
          concentrated on the inner walls craters. However, on the
          inner wall of Himeros (lower right), steep slopes are
          extensive and the bright material appears as pervasive,
          scattered patches.
          --------------------------------------------------------
          Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University
          Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland,
          NEAR-Shoemaker was the first spacecraft launched in
          NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale
          planetary missions. See the NEAR web site for more
          details (http://near.jhuapl.edu) .
Received on Thu 01 Feb 2001 12:04:44 PM PST